Deidron McKay, a 20-year-old resident of Belize City, was killed in a shooting which police believe to be a gang-related attempt at retaliation. McKay is a casualty of a street feud that his family insists he stayed far away from.

The incident happened at around 8:35 p.m. on Friday, November 3, McKay was socializing, after work, with a group of friends and family members at a residence on #19 Haynes Street, which is not too far from his own home. Their gathering was disturbed by an unknown gunman who entered the yard, and opened fire indiscriminately.

Persons in the area reportedly heard about 7 or 8 gunshots from this attack, and after the gunman fled, all those around realized that he suffered a gunshot to the abdomen and to the lower back. They tried their best to get him help, but the police were unable to rush him to the hospital in time. At around 8:50 p.m., about 15 minutes after he was injured in the shooting, he was pronounced dead.

The cops believe that this shooter targeted the gathering as a sort of revenge attempt for the shooting on Sunday, October 29, which happened on Neal’s Penn Road. That prior shooting happened only 5 days earlier, and right around the corner from where Deidron McKay was murdered. The victims of that one was 18 year-old Cameron Moreira; 28 year-old Godwin Flowers; 32 year-old Darren; and 68 year-old Gerald Tillett, father of late Shelton “Pinky” Tillett, and Gerald “Shiney” Tillett. Readers know very well, that these 2 men were the reputed leaders of the George Street Gang.

Discussing the murder of Deidron McKay, Senior Superintendent Marco Vidal, the Officer Commanding Eastern Division South, told the press, “Because of the ongoing rivalries that exists between these factions, we expect that these people will be going after each other. We know that the last incident involves some players from one of the key gangs and subsequently we anticipated that there would be some level of retaliation which we eventually saw over the weekend. So yes it is a gang rivalry situation that we are looking at.”

But, Deidron McKay, is from all accounts, an innocent victim who had the extreme misfortune of being the first person that the gunman spotted. His family believes that he was shot and killed, simply because he was the nearest person that the gunman came in contact with, after the shooter barged into their yard.

He was a delivery man, and a breadwinner for his mother, and according to his sister, he used to deliver his paycheck to her, so that she could make decisions on how it would be wisely spent. He also struggled with mental illness, and his sister says that he looked forward to attending church.

She told the media, “We don’t want any retaliation for Deidron. We left it up to God. He is not sleeping, he will take away everything. So we don’t want any retaliation, because Deidron wasn’t a gang bang person. Deidron loved going to church. So we don’t want any retaliation. We just want the killing to stop.”